Russia Accused of Spreading AI-Generated Fake News About Kyiv Monastery Attack

Russia has been accused of fabricating a narrative that Ukraine was responsible for an attack on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, which suffered roof damage following a Russian air raid on June 14-15. This claim, disseminated on social media, suggests the monastery was intentionally set ablaze by Ukrainians to garner further Western support.

Propaganda messages accompanying the claims asserted that Kyiv "regularly has to present evidence of the barbarism of the Russian army to the world" to justify requests for billions in aid. To bolster this narrative, posts included purported visual evidence: photographs allegedly showing camera operators with professional equipment setting up near the monastery. However, a thorough search across various search engines revealed these images were exclusively shared by pro-Russian social media accounts and had not been published by any legitimate media outlets.

An initial review and comparison with authentic images of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra surroundings indicated that the scenes depicted in the photos were not real. The claim that a team was prepared to film the monastery's fire was identified as a fabrication. Further analysis by "Melo detektorius" (Fact Detector) confirmed the findings of Ukrainian journalists.

One of the AI-generated images, purportedly showing a daytime scene, depicted architectural elements resembling St. Sophia Cathedral, a different landmark located 5 kilometers away from the Lavra. The image featured a combination of gold and green domes, distinct from the Lavra's architecture. Another AI-generated image, supposedly capturing the night of the attack, showed inconsistencies. Despite a large fire in the background, the camera screen displayed only a dark background. An AI detection tool from OpenAI also confirmed that both the daytime and nighttime images were created using artificial intelligence, evidenced by digital watermarks.